


sharpest knife in the world

by knoxoursavior



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character's Name Spelled as Viktor, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-14
Updated: 2018-09-14
Packaged: 2019-07-12 02:28:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15985688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/knoxoursavior/pseuds/knoxoursavior
Summary: It’s like he can’t be content with how much of Yuri’s life he’s already taken over, literally moving to St. Petersburg, into Viktor’s apartment and into Yuri’s home rink, and now he has to somehow have something to do with the few ways Yuri has to decompress from skating.Or: Yuri finds out that Yuuri is that knife channel on Youtube.





	sharpest knife in the world

**Author's Note:**

> not super happy with this but maybe that's just because i came from writing a long fic and this is.. a lot shorter but aaaa i hope yall still enjoy this even a little bit :(
> 
> inspired by [this](https://singeiji.tumblr.com/post/177941282808/lavenderprose-i-love-the-idea-of-yuuri-katsuki) except it's the knife channel lmao

Yuri finds the video on his Recommended page amidst figure skating videos and thumbnails of cats staring up at him. He doesn’t know why a video titled _[sharpest jello kitchen knife in the world](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oadf4KNYz-I&t=288s) _ from a channel called _kiwami japan_ would be recommended to him, but he suspects that it’s because of those cat videos Mila has been sending him, distinctly Japanese murmurs in the background, cooing at the cats. He doesn’t know why he presses play, other than the fact that knives are cool and _jello knife_ sounds even cooler. He might as well anyway, while he’s shirking the homework Yakov has told him to do now that he’s only days away from the start of training.

There’s no music, no voice-over, nothing but occasional subtitles, and yet Yuri is fascinated from start to finish. Yuri watches as the man in the video melts the jello in a pan, watches as he forms the shape of a knife and as he turns it back into jelly.

Yuri sends a link to Mila right away, in part because she’s a vicious hag who would appreciate this kind of content and also because he needs someone to fall into this hole with and it sure as hell won’t be Georgi or Viktor. Then, somehow, by the end of the day, Yuri has watched all of the knife-making videos on _kiwami japan_ , already thinking about watching the handful of videos about knife maintenance, already excited for the next video. He doesn’t realize until he’s finished the very last video that he’s barely thought of skating or the disgusting song choices Yakov just sent him or how he wants nothing more than to finally debut in Seniors so he can kick Viktor Nikiforov off his high fucking horse.

He finally feels the thrum under his skin that tells him to _skate skate skate_ settle, finally is close enough to the calm he only feels when his Grandpa smiles at him and tells him he’s proud of his Yuratchka. Yuri doesn’t know why, doesn’t understand it because he’s always hated ASMR videos and these videos are borderline just that.

Still, he clicks _subscribe_.

The uploads seem to be sporadic, with periods when there’s an upload every week and periods when there isn’t a new video for months at a time. Recently though, _kiwami japan_ has been uploading twice a month, which means there should be a new video this Sunday.

So when the day comes, Yuri finishes his dinner early, twenty minutes past 7 PM, quick enough considering he and Grandpa had pirozhki tonight. He rushes back to his room, dives for his phone that Grandpa bans from the dinner table, and feels his heart jump in his chest when he finds a brand new video titled _sharpest Rice kitchen knife in the world_.

He watches it, and when it ends, he watches it again.

After that, he opens up the video of his choreographer’s rough step sequences for his new SP. For the first time this week, he watches it without feeling like throwing his phone at the wall and destroying it for the third time this year.

 

Yuri has had a very bad month.

From the clusterfuck that was the GPF at Sochi to weeks of Viktor crying all over their home rink because stupid Katsuki hasn’t texted him yet—well. It’s really no wonder he comes home one night with a bag of groceries in his hand, ready to recreate _[Kitchen knife made from potatoes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf9ZHW7fKBA&t=543s). _

There have been more uploads than usual on _kiwami japan_ , sometimes even twice a week. Yuri’s a little bit concerned considering the last video with the potatoes seemed a little bit too fake cheery compared to his other videos. Even then, watching that video still helped Yuri’s mood once he muted the sound and got rid of the annoying daily vlogger background music, so Yuri only left a comment saying, _great as usual, but didn’t like the music_ , and moved on.

Still, Yuri woke up today with his nerves frayed and his mouth already twisted into a frown. He felt like he was all over the place, which only got worse when he kept on flubbing his jumps at practice. He rarely ever races out of the rink, not even if Yakov’s screaming at him to start his cool-down stretches or to rest, but he did today, and now he’s standing in the dorm kitchen with potato starch, vinegar, and food coloring laid out on the kitchen counter.

It’s not the same as just watching a video, with all the unfilled silences, all the waiting, all the annoying rinkmates asking him what he’s up to and why he’s using their apron their girlfriend gave to them for their birthday. Still, it helps. For the most part, it keeps Yuri’s mind off Junior Nationals and Junior Worlds, keeps his mind off stupid Georgi who can’t seem to talk about anything but stupid Anya these days or stupid Viktor who’s the same about stupid Katsuki except a whole lot sadder. It probably says a lot about Yakov that a hag like Mila is the only one Yuri can tolerate out of all his rinkmates.

By the end of the night, he’s sweating from standing over the stove for so long, but he’s set aside the jelly-like material in the abandoned mugs cupboard where no one will find it and he’s officially halfway through making a kitchen knife. He’s feeling a little bit better about his day, and it helps that it only takes a quick hot shower and a few scrolls on his phone for him to fall asleep.

 

Yuri sees it in the kitchen, sitting innocently next to the spices and the bottles of sauce Mrs. Katsuki is going to use for her katsudon. A little hollow porcelain cow that _kiwami japan_ uses as a water pitcher. Yuri has tried to look for it online but the only exact matches he found didn’t ship to Russia.

“Mrs. Katsuki,” Yuri says. He doesn’t look up from where he’s chopping up some onions because he’s not stupid and he doesn’t wanna bleed all over Katsudon’s house like a freak.

“Yes, Yurio?” Mrs. Katsuki says.

Yuri wrinkles his nose at the nickname, but he doesn’t say anything about it. Mrs. Katsuki hasn’t done anything wrong other than go along with Mari’s suggestion, and she’s the best cook Yuri has ever met besides his Grandpa so she gets a pass.

“Where’d you get the cow?” he asks.

“The cow? Oh! That one?” Mrs. Katsuki pauses what she’s doing, sets down the fork and the bowl she’s holding. “Yuuri bought it as a Christmas gift his second year in America. It’s cute, isn’t it?”

Yuri looks up at her, frowning. “So you don’t know where he bought it?”

“Oh, you’re going to have to ask him,” Mrs. Katsuki says, which only makes Yuri frown even more because like hell he’s going to willingly ask Katsudon something.

Besides, he’s not in the mood to butt into Yuuri and Viktor’s whole weird thing, especially with a couple extra hours in the onsen between them. He still remembers the last time Viktor tried to coax Katsudon into stretching in the bath, still remembers the days after that unable to look either of them in the eye without feeling like he needs to run away and barf.

It doesn’t matter anyway, because _kiwami japan_ hasn’t uploaded a new video in three months. He uploaded so much from January to March, and then he just stopped. Yuri has always known that his upload schedule wasn’t that great, but he can’t help but feel a little annoyed anyway.

But Yuri doesn’t really care much anymore. If Katsudon has the porcelain cow too then it must not be so great after all.

 

Yuri finds them in one of Katsudon’s boxes labeled _UNIVERSITY_.

He’s in Viktor’s apartment, bribed into helping them unpack with promises of snacks and a home-cooked dinner. Yuri has just finished sorting through a box full of Katsudon’s favorite books so he grimaces at this next box, bound to be as boring as the last one, if not more. He expects papers, expects notebooks and binders of Katsudon’s messy, blocky handwriting. He doesn’t expect the whetstones, and he definitely doesn’t expect the knives.

And yes, _knives_. As in more than one knife. Easily more than ten, in fact.

Yuri’s about to call out to Katsudon, who’s in the bedroom trying to organize his closet space while Viktor tries to distract him like the old geezer he is, but then he spots it—bright blue like a glimpse of the sky after days of long hours in the rink. He knows that knife, has fantasized about it, has tried to make it only to the point that he had a knife-shaped piece of hardened potato mixture but no whetstones to sharpen it.

Yuri frowns, realizes that all of these knives are the very same knives from _kiwami japan_ . He also realizes how this looks. He realizes that from here, he can either jump to the conclusion that Katsudon is a fan who tried to copy everything that _kiwami japan_ did, or that Katsuki Yuuri _is kiwami japan_.

Yuri is sick of this. He’s already burdened with the old posters of Katsudon he has hidden away under his bed in Grandpa’s apartment, and now he might have to deal with the fact that the one Youtube channel he comes back to whenever he feels like he’s about to burst, like he needs to calm down and stop thinking, is actually run by Katsudon as well. It’s like he can’t be content with how much of Yuri’s life he’s already taken over, literally moving to St. Petersburg, into Viktor’s apartment and into Yuri’s home rink, and now he has to somehow have something to do with the few ways Yuri has to decompress from skating.

And Yuri—he needs to know. He’s probably better off not knowing, but he’s never been one to run away from problems. So Yuri marches into the bedroom, stomping all the way, barely blinking at how Viktor has his arms wrapped around Katsudon’s middle, whining at him instead of helping like he should.

“Oi, Katsudon!” Yuri drops the box of knives and whetstones at their feet, crosses his arms and frowns in the way that Mila says will give him wrinkles. “What the fuck is this?”

“Oh! I can’t believe Mari sent those here too,” Katsudon says, and somehow, his cheeks get even redder, like knives are embarrassing than whatever that was with Viktor.

Viktor, by the way, who gasps and flutters around the box like a dog with a new toy.

“Yuuri, are you a _serial killer_ ?” he says, teasing lilt to his voice that always sounds so _stupid_.

But of course Katsudon splutters, waving his hands in denial, saying, “I’m not, I’m not!”

Yuri grits his teeth, stomps his foot hard enough that Katsudon turns to him with his eyes wide.

“What is this?” Yuri repeats.

“It’s nothing!” Katsudon says. “Just a hobby I had when I was in university.”

Viktor hums as he inspects the knife made from smoke. That’s one of Yuri’s actual favorites because knives are good but knives made by setting things on fire are even better.

“It seems like I learn something new about you everyday, Yuuri,” Viktor says. “Does this mean we’re still in the honeymoon stage?”

“Viktor!” Katsudon covers his face with his hands, hides behind them as he shakes his head profusely. “We’re not even married yet.”

Viktor looks like he’s about to tackle Katsudon to the ground and cry, so Yuri takes control of the conversation again, decides to go straight to the point because he doesn’t think he can take any more of this.

“Are you _kiwami japan_?” he asks.

Katsudon’s eyes widen, his mouth falling slack in surprise. Already, Yuri knows what the answer is and he feels his world shifting once again. It’s just like that day of the FS in Barcelona, hearing Viktor say that he’s competing again, realizing that Katsudon might be retiring. It’s like that, but it’s _not_ , because while Yuri feels as intensely as he did then, he isn’t angry. There is no fire burning in him now, just a slow rushing in his ears that makes him feel a little dizzy.

He wants to punch Katsudon and go home, pull up a _kiwami japan_ video and fall asleep to it. He wants to yell at Katsudon and ask him to help Yuri finally make a knife at the same time.

So he does. Yell, that is.

“No dates this weekend,” Yuri says, making sure to really pin Viktor down with a glare before he looks back at Katsudon. “We’re making a knife. I’ll be here at 8 so make me breakfast too, Katsudon.”

Katsudon’s expression shifts from embarrassed to surprised to pleased, and now he’s looking at Yuri with a little smile like they’re sharing a secret.

“See you this weekend, Yurio,” he says.

Yuri narrows his eyes, says, “Don’t call me that!”

And then he’s stomping out the room, ignoring Viktor’s protests and happy for it.

**Author's Note:**

> hmu on [tumblr](https://singeiji.tumblr.com/)!!


End file.
